


Lost and Found

by SomewhereApart



Category: Battlestar Galactica
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 05:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1970667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomewhereApart/pseuds/SomewhereApart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara needs a reason to stay. Maybe, just maybe, Lee Adama can give her one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to [](http://callmeonetrack.livejournal.com/profile)[**callmeonetrack**](http://callmeonetrack.livejournal.com/) for the beta! Inspired by the [](http://no-takebacks.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://no-takebacks.livejournal.com/)**no_takebacks** KGL rewatch, and our collective desire for these two crazy kids to just yell it out already.

“I’m sorry, _what did you say??_ ” Lee questioned, and Kara was pretty sure she’d never seen his brows so high in the many years she’d known him. Her already knotted stomach twisted even further; this was stupid. She was stupid. Why was she even telling him this?

“I said, _Lee_ ,” she began, exhaling slowly, “That the President asked me to take the raider back to Caprica, retrieve the Arrow of Apollo and bring it back here, so we can find the way to Earth.”

“And you’re, what? Actually considering this?” His voice bounced off the walls of the ready room.

“Not a lot of reasons not to, Lee.”

“Not a lot of-“ Lee shook his head, laughing at her, and Kara squeezed her hands tight on her hips to keep herself steady and solid. This was such a frakking mess. Everything was… just such a… why did she even… “Not a lot of reasons not to? How about that fact that it’s a suicide mission, Kara? You’re going to – you’re actually thinking about jumping all the way back to the Cylon-occupied colonies for some mythological fantasy-“

“Frak you, Lee,” she bit off, feeling the heat flare through her. _How dare he._ “You know that I believe in the gods, the scriptures-”

“I also know you believe in the military – at least the Kara Thrace I _thought_ I knew believed in the military.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too, Lee, until I had a little talk with the Old Man, and you know what? I think Roslin’s right. I think he has no frakking idea where Earth is, that we are just out here in the black, bouncing around from star system to star system hoping to the gods that some kind of habitable planet will fall into our laps, and now we’ve found Kobol, Lee. We may have found _Kobol_. Everything I was raised to believe could be real, and that… that has never failed me, Lee.” He opened his mouth to say something, but she didn’t want to hear it. “So give me a reason to stay.”

“What?”

“I said _give me a reason to stay, Lee_ ,” she challenged, heart pounding, palms sweaty against the cotton of her tanks. It was now or never, say something or don’t, and he wouldn’t be acting like this if he wasn’t... if there was nothing… “Give me a reason. There is no Earth, at least not one that we know the location of, so I don’t have that to look forward to. The Old Man – who I trusted, who I – he lied to me. Looked me in the face and lied to me. And you made it pretty clear that I’m just a whore you could do without. So. Lee. Give me one good godsdamned reason.”

He just stood there and gaped at her, mouth opening and closing like a fish. He was caught, trapped, wondering how much he should bet. Good. Let it be him for once. He finally managed, “You’re not a whore.”

“No, right. I’m just a pilot who can’t keep her pants on.”

“Kara-“

“Come on, Lee, time’s a’wasting here. Frak duty, and frak loyalty, because my duty and loyalty have already been frakked to Hades today, so tell me: Why shouldn’t I go? Why shouldn’t I trust my faith on this one? It’s about the only thing that’s pulling for me right now.”

“Because you’re not a screw-up,” he told her, and Kara bit the inside of her lips, hard. Well, that wasn’t quite what she’d expected to hear. “You’re not a screw-up and that – by the way – that’s a frakking cop-out excuse, so tell _me_ why. For real, this time, Kara.”

“Oh, for frak’s sake. This isn’t about us, Lee-“

“This is _all_ about us, Kara!” he shouted, throwing his arms out wide and shaking his head again. “We wouldn’t be in this room right now if this wasn’t about us. You wouldn’t be asking me to make you stay if this wasn’t about us. It’s frakking all about us, Kara, so just tell me: Why Baltar? Why-“

“Because you walked away!” Well, that shut him up. “Because I put on a dress for you, and got made up _for you_ , and you just frakking walked away, and it was humiliating.” Her cheeks were burning hot, and she dug her fingers harder into her skin to keep them from shaking. Gods, she was just making this whole situation even more FUBAR than it already was but hell, why not? What did she have to lose now? “I don’t know what I was thinking – I don’t know what I’m thinking _now_ , because you obviously don’t give a _frak_ -“

Before she’d even really realized he’d moved, he was kissing her hard and hot, teeth clacking against hers when she gasped. He nipped her lip, pressed his forehead to hers, and she felt the heat of his palm against the back of her neck when he breathed, “Is that what you wanted?”

Kara wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened, but her brain was a little too cloudy to stop her mouth from saying, “Yes.”

“Because you could die,” he told her, voice shaky. “Because you could die, and yes, I would care. I don’t know what I’d do if…” He shook his head, tightened his hand against her nape. “You want a reason to stay, I’ll give you one, okay? I’ll be your reason, just… don’t do this, Kara.”

“You’ll be my…” Kara planted her hands on his chest and pushed away; she needed distance, she needed _air_. Suddenly it was like there was no frakking air. “What does that even mean, Lee?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged, and looked at her like… gods, like she didn’t even know what. “I just know that… you matter. Okay? You matter more than anyone else in the universe.”

No air. None. It was like someone had depressurized the damned ship. This was not good. This was not what she wanted. _This_ was not how this was supposed to go. This was _bad_. He was supposed to be _Lee_ and be _stubborn_ and _lie_. He needed to lie so she could do what needed to be done here. “I can’t do this.”

“I love you.”

“Oh, gods.” She took a step back, then another.

“I do, Kara.” Shit, gods, this was – she should _never_ have brought this up. She didn’t realize how far she’d backed up until she felt the seat of a chair against the back of her knees and she fumbled down into it with a thunk. Lee was over her a second later, hands on the armrests, caging her in. “Every day I thank the gods or fate or the universe or _whatever_ that you and I ended up on this frakking ship at the end of the worlds because maybe it meant we had a second chance, and I’ve just been too scared to take it, but frak it, right? The worlds ended, there’s no Earth, everything is a lie. Except this. I love you. I want you. So frak it. I’m done worrying about regs, or about what people will think, or about what _you_ think. You’re worth fighting for, Kara Thrace. _We_ are worth fighting for.”

“Lee-“ He kissed her again, slower this time, longer, and she could hear her godsdamned heartbeat in her ears, could hear the steady rush of blood, and there was still no air. She turned her head away from his, gasped, “I’m gonna frak this up.”

“So frak it up, I’m sure you won’t be the only one.” He smiled at her, one of those dazzling Lee Adama smiles, and threaded his fingers through her hair. “We’ll fix it. We’ll make it work. But you’ve gotta stay with me, Kara. You can’t go flying off on some crazy mission that could get you killed, because I need you here. With me. Having a go at this. Us. We can’t have been given a second chance for nothing.”

“Lee-“

“Just try. Just say you’ll try. We can try, right?”

Kara swallowed hard, looked up into that frakking beautiful, honest, hopeful face, and thought maybe trying would be okay. Trying was… trying. Trying was a maybe. Trying would only be tempting fate just a little bit. So she took a slow, deep breath, and nodded. “We can try.”

His forehead pressed to hers again, then his lips. “And you’ll stay?”

Another nod, a heavy swallow. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll stay.”

He planted another kiss on her brow, then the bridge of her nose, her lips, and Kara felt her mouth curve into a smile. Maybe it would be okay, maybe it wouldn’t. But Lee was right – second chances shouldn’t be wasted, and if everything else was lost, maybe at least she could have this.

It’s not a fair trade, exactly, but she figures that’s okay.

Maybe, just maybe, what the gods don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.  



End file.
